School Counselor Blog

On Friday I saw @counselingjbms share tips for students to get ready for Spring Break! I loved this idea and decided to make a version for my students. (Check out @counselingjbms for their post that inspired me!) I scheduled an e-mail to go out to all the students on my caseload Monday morning that includes these "Spring into Break" tips. Who knew you could schedule emails in gmail?! It is a definite game-changer! I created these Spring into Break tips on Canva . If you are interested in creating this Spring into Break tips for your students, and want to use this image, I created an editable Google Slide that you can customize for your students!  I created an editable Google Slide so you can create your own version of these tips for your students. Click here , or the image below to access a copy of the Spring into Break tips.  I added text boxes and included sample text. You can edit the text to customize these tips for your school and students. I pu...

Our March and April PBIS theme is Mindfulness. I wanted to do something for remote students connected to our monthly theme. I created Mindfulness Activity cards with a few activities students could complete at home. I made a variety of choices so that hopefully they would be willing to try one. We assembled a packet with the Mindfulness Activity cards, an Outdoor Mindulness Scavenger Hunt, and a Mindfulness Coloring Page to send home to students who will be remote the last semester of the school year. For a personal touch we included a handwritten note on a postcard that says "We miss you! Have a great Trimester 3! From the PBIS Team." I made the Mindfulness Activities cards using the items from my Pinwheel Mindfulness Bulletin Board. I thought this would be a great way to share our March & April theme - Mindfulness - with remote students.  You can access the Mindfulness Activity Card here .  The Mindfulness Scavenger Hunt a...

I created this colorful, interactive, spring bulletin board for our March & April PBIS theme, mindfulness. I made this bulletin board interactive for students by adding QR Codes with different mindfulness activities. Since most things need to be touch-less right now, I thought using QR Codes would be an easy way for students to access some mindfulness activities. If you are not familiar with QR Codes, QR stands for Quick Response. QR Codes are scannable with a smart device camera (iPad, tablet, or smart phone). you can easily make your own QR codes by using a QR Code generator. You can link the QR Code to a website or online document. When the user scans the QR Code they will be directed to the link. I used  QR Code Generator  to create the QR Codes.  I got the idea for this bulletin board while looking for mindfulness resources. I stumbled upon a New York Times article about "Pinwheel Breathing." This sent me down a rabbit hole of brainstormin...

This Sunday Andrea Burston ( @jyjcounselor ) and I are hosting an idea sharing session on Google Meet - Spring Forward, Spread Joy! We will share ideas about how to spread joy in your school! We will share ways we spread joy in our schools and learn new ideas from you too! Spend your extra hour of daylight with us on Sunday, March 14th at 7:30 p.m. on Google Meet:  https://meet.google.com/xgm-iqwd-mop .  To participate you just need to get on Google Meet at 7:30pm EST using this link: https://meet.google.com/xgm-iqwd-mop . We can't wait to see you there!  Follow Danielle on Instagram for more updated and posts! #scchat #scspreadjoy #schoolcounselorlife #schoolcounselor

We ended our Random Acts of Kindness Week on a SWEET note on Friday! Our PBIS team hosted a Coffee and Sweet Treats Bar to show our appreciation for teachers and school staff!  We used the theme "Supporting QVMS Students is a Work of HEART!" We used red plastic table cloths, Valentine's Day stickers, Valentine's Day candy, and coffee from the school kitchen. We provided cups and cellophane bags so people could grab-and-go.  We were able to get lots of discounted items at Target after Valentine's Day.  This was a fun way to add a little cheer to a Friday!  What treats or giveaways have you done for school staff?

In January I participated in a Flexible Professional Development. Our district sent out different webinars and trainings we could attend virtually. We were able to pick and choose which webinars and trainings we wanted to attend. One of the webinars I chose was The Value of Educator Self-Care by Learning for Justice (Formerly Teaching Tolerance). The webinar had so much valuable information. One of the things that stuck out most to me was a self-care chart one of the leaders of the webinar, Geneviève DeBose, shared . Geneviève DeBose created a large chart on wrapping paper to display things she could do to practice self-care. Geneviève DeBose wrote a post about the Self-Care Practices Chart she made,  Deepening a Practice of Self-Care .  She was inspired to create the Self-Care Practices Chart after she saw another educator share a Self-Care Bingo. I love this visual reminder to practice self-care. I immediately began thinking about how I could use this in my work with s...

I bought In My Heart: A Book About Feelings by Jo Witek and illustrated by Christina Roussey  for my daughters 2 years ago for Valentine's Day, because #SchoolCounselorMom. It is such a great book to use for talking about feelings! I took this photo back in 2019. Our copy is very well loved now! I just love the illustrations in  In My Heart: A Book About Feelings  and the cut out hearts. I just ordered a second copy for my middle school counseling office.  Have you used this book to talk about feelings? Want more innovative ideas, creative lessons, and quality resources? Follow me on Instagram .  *this post contains affiliate links.